Bangor survives another great goalie performance

Bangor, ME– The Bangor Rams fired 55 shots on Messalonskee’s freshman goaltender Nate Delgiudice but only managed to get three past him. The Rams also added an empty netter for the 4-1 victory.

“That Delgiudice kid is on fire,” said Bangor Head Coach Ted Taylor. “Messalonskee loves to play five guys in front of that net.”

“I thought I played pretty well,” said Delgiudice. “I had a bit of a blank in the second period.”

“We worked extremely hard, we were in the game until one minute off in the second period,” says Messalonskee’s Head Coach Mike Latendresse.

The Rams had a 5 on 3 powerplay chance in the first stanza but Delgiudice was able to keep the game tied heading into the first intermission.

“We do a very good job of that (killing 5 on 3 penalties),” said Latendresse. “We are very poised, we stay tight, we stayed controlled and we don’t get out of the triangle.”

For Delgiudice it’s holding the fort down. “Hold them the best we can. Those are hard especially a good team like Bangor.

Ted Taylor says the Eagles did a good job of blocking shots while shorthanded.

“They blocked a lot of shots and had their sticks in there to clear out rebounds,” says Taylor. “I wished we had better shots then we had.”

Going to the locker room, Messalonskee was excited that the game was tied. “We were excited. We were in the game obviously, this is a team that we loss 8-0 earlier in the season,” Latendresse.

After Delgiudice and the rest of the Eagles killed a full two minute powerplay in the middle of the frame; the Rams finally got on the board.

Chad Kelly would fire one past Delgiudice with 3:14 remaining in the stanza on the powerplay. “There was a bunch of people in front. I had no idea where it was and he beat me up high,” says Delgiudice.

Alain Reese and Joey Seccareccia picked the helpers.

The Rams got another powerplay tally just under 50 seconds left when Johnny Warren jammed it home. Nick George got the lone assist. “I stopped the original one (shot) but I tried to grab it with my paddle,” says Delgiudice.

Just a matter of seconds later, it was 3-0 when Darren Casey-Covell roofed it over Delgiudice. It was an unassisted marker.

It was just a matter of getting the first one says Taylor. “They knew they were due”, said Taylor.

The third period saw the Rams changed net-minders as Zach Hamilton got sick between the second and third period. He made nine saves. Chris Howat took over the duties for the final 15 minutes.

With a cold goalie, the Eagles got on the board. Lucas Bruchu went end to end and snapped one past Howat with 5:11 to go.

“After that goal, I almost put Zach back in,” says Taylor. “I was nervous.”

The Eagles kept the momentum going but Cameron Bernard went to the box with 3:46 left in the third.

“That’s part of the game, the referees did an excellent job tonight,” said Latendresse. “We played well in the third period; it was probably our best period.”

With 29 seconds remaining, Joey Seccareccia put the game on ice as he got the empty netter. Helpers went to Adam King and Phil Frost.

Notes: The Bangor-Brewer game that was scheduled for Saturday at 4:40 has been rescheduled for Friday night at 7:40. Both schools have their basketball teams playing the State tournament on Saturday.